Great Writing Quotes - Page 2

• Read over your compositions and whenever you meet with a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

  Samuel Johnson

  Art, Writing, Thinking

  "The Sayings of Doctor Johnson".

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• Start writing, no matter what. The water does not flow until the faucet is turned on

  Louis L'Amour

  Inspirational, Writing, Kids

  Louis L'Amour (2008). “Education of a Wandering Man”, p.102, Bantam

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• To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music that words make.

  Truman Capote

  Music, Writing, Creativity

  Truman Capote, M. Thomas Inge (1987). “Truman Capote: Conversations”, p.88, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• So the writer who breeds more words than he needs, is making a chore for the reader who reads.

  Dr. Seuss

  Life, Beautiful, Funny Inspirational

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• Sit down and put down everything that comes into your head and then you're a writer. But an author is one who can judge his own stuff's worth, without pity, and destroy most of it.

  Sidonie Gabrielle Colette

  Writing, Judging, Down And

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• The desire to write grows with writing.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Writing, Desire, Grows

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• The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

  Andre Gide

  Beautiful, Writing, Madness

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• Every writer I know has trouble writing.

  Joseph Heller

  Writing, Young Writers, Trouble

  "Personal Quotes/ Biography". www.imdb.com.

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• I have rewritten — often several times — every word I have ever published. My pencils outlast their erasers.

  Vladimir Nabokov

  Writing, Revision, Pencils

  Vladimir Vladimirovich Nabokov (1973). “Strong opinions”, McGraw-Hill Companies

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• Don't look back until you've written an entire draft, just begin each day from the last sentence you wrote the preceeding day. This prevents those cringing feelings, and means that you have a substantial body of work before you get down to the real work which is all in . . . The edit.

  Will Self

  Real, Mean, Writing

  "Will Self's rules for writers" by Will Self, www.theguardian.com. February 22, 2010.

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• Writing's about getting up, getting well, and getting over. Getting happy, okay? Getting happy.

  Stephen King

  Get Well, Writing, Okay

  Stephen King (2002). “On Writing”, p.275, Simon and Schuster

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• There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are well written, or badly written.

  Oscar Wilde

  Book, Reading, Writing

  The Picture of Dorian Gray preface (1891)

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• The most valuable of all talents is that of never using two words when one will do.

  Thomas Jefferson

  Inspirational, Motivational, Teaching

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• The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug.

  Mark Twain

  Inspirational, Funny, Humorous

  Mark Twain (2014). “Mark Twain on Common Sense: Timeless Advice and Words of Wisdom from America's Most-Revered Humorist”, p.13, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• You can't wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

  Jack London

  Inspirational, Funny, Witty

  Jack London (2015). “Jack London on Adventure: Words of Wisdom from an Expert Adventurer”, p.5, Skyhorse Publishing, Inc.

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• First, find out what your hero wants, then just follow him.

  Ray Bradbury

  Hero, Writing, Want

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• Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

  Benjamin Franklin

  Inspirational, Motivational, Positive

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• The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

  Samuel Johnson

  Wisdom, Writing, Procrastination

  Statement on April 14, 1775. "Life of Samuel Johnson". Book by James Boswell. Volume II, 1791.

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• Everybody walks past a thousand story ideas every day.

  Orson Scott Card

  Writing, Past, Ideas

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• You can't fake quality any more than you can fake a good meal.

  William S. Burroughs

  Fake People, Quality, Meals

  William S. Burroughs (1988). “The Western Lands”, Penguin Group USA

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• Let the world burn through you. Throw the prism light, white hot, on paper.

  Ray Bradbury

  Writing, Light, White

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• If you do not breathe through writing, if you do not cry out in writing, or sing in writing, then don't write, because our culture has no use for it.

  Anais Nin

  Writing, Commitment, Culture

  "Woman as Writer" by Jeannette L. Webber and Joan Grumman, (p. 38), 1978.

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• Some editors are failed writers, but so are most writers.

  T. S. Eliot

  Witty, Humorous, Writing

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• To gain your own voice you have to forget about having it heard.

  Allen Ginsberg

  Writing, Voice, Design

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• Great is the art of beginning, but greater is the art of ending.

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

  Goodbye, Art, Business

  Henry Wadsworth Longfellow “The Complete Poems of Longfellow”, Library of Alexandria

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